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A magical Israeli-Australian forest Jewish wedding at Tsel Hadumim, Ben Shemen forest, Israel

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People – prepare yourselves: there is an abundance of pretty in this real wedding, and even we’re struggling to handle it – and we do this all the time!

We’re always in awe of Israeli weddings – the natural beauty of the place never fails to make for a stunning backdrop, and Israeli venues just know how to do magic like nobody else. Abigail and Roei’s last-minute celebration looked anything but hasty, in fact, it was absolutely packed with Israeli charm.

The day was captured by our oft-featured and much-loved STG Recommended Vendor, Herschel Gutman, who did an incredible job of translating the heart and thought that went into each choice into stunning, timeless images.

Gorgeous Abigail’s Australian-cool vibe brought an added factor of effortless chic, and her choice of dress, a unique, lacy number by Israeli designer, Adi Groman, was just perfect – a bohemian fairytale. 

We adore the significance of the path to the chuppah, which was lined with the Shiv’at HaMinim (the Seven Species from the Bible), making the journey to the ceremony even more poignant. 

On the wedding morning, Roei had a minor medical emergency – and not everything ran smoothly. But, once these two lovebirds locked eyes at the chuppah, none of that mattered. We can all learn from that. 

Over to Abigail for the full story on her and Roei’s stunning wedding day:

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How we met

Abigail, the bride: in March 2014 I arrived in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica – my last stop after a year of travelling, which included four months in Israel. Roei, who’s Israeli, was there on a surfing trip. We met on the beach and spent a week travelling together (I now know that he had already decided I’d one day be his wife!). I then returned to Australia with the intention of moving to Tel Aviv later in the year to study.

We messaged each other sporadically for six weeks, until Roei finally asked if he could Skype me. From that first conversation, we both pretty much knew. We spent four months Skyping every single day, often for five to six hours at a time (yes, we were both extremely sleep deprived, but we didn’t care!).

At the two-month mark, we decided to meet halfway in Thailand to make sure that we weren’t completely crazy prior to my arrival in Israel. The meeting at the airport was one of the best moments of my life, which I think is now only on par with Roei’s proposal on ‘Roy’s Peak’ in New Zealand and our wedding day.

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Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Gillian + Pete… how they met to the present day

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 2nd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Gillian who will be marrying Pete on 8th September 2017 at the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

THREE FACTS: (1) Gillian is Jewish and Pete is Catholic (2) A Rabbi and a Priest will officiate at their wedding (3) Gillian is a Health & Wellness Coach and Pete is a Travel Occupational Therapist.

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How We Met

Pete and I met almost 9 years ago while attending graduate school in Philadelphia. We became fast friends and dated for two and a half years throughout grad school. We loved experiencing our early twenties in the city of brotherly love. We had the best time trying out new BYOBs around the city, hanging at tailgates with friends, dancing at local bars (I enjoyed this more than Pete lol), and having each other as built-in study partners made school nights much more fun.

However, as grad school came to an end we decided it wasn’t the right time for us  to be a couple and amicably went our separate ways. I know what you’re thinking, “This doesn’t sound like a good start to a love story?!” But stick with us, I promise we pull through!

After some years…

We didn’t live near one another (about an hour and a half apart in NJ) so it’s not unusual that we went three years without seeing each other, and our only form of communication was the occasional text and happy birthday message. We each dated other people as we grew in our careers. We grew as individuals and matured into late twenty-somethings. Luckily we grew in the same direction, although miles apart.

We had been chatting a bit in the spring of 2014, and this is when I discovered Pete was invited to a wedding of a mutual friend from grad school, and he didn’t have a date to bring. I thought the obvious answer to this problem was to bring me, right?!

So, I invited myself to a weekend wedding 6 hours away (keep in mind, we hadn’t seen each other for almost 3 years). After some joking back and forth Pete agreed we would have a great time together, as I already knew the groom and neither of us would know anyone else at the wedding.

During that six-hour car ride we caught up on EVERYTHING: Life, family, relationships, work, and our own past together. Anyone who has been on a road trip knows this could have gone horribly wrong or perfectly right. Lucky for us, that weekend was the first of many road trips to come. We had the best time at the wedding and realized we owed it to ourselves to give our relationship another shot. That was in August of 2014, and we’ve been together ever since (I told you we pulled through!)

Now we are traveling the country while Pete works as a travel occupational therapist, and I work as a health and wellness coach from wherever our home is at the time. We have been living in different places and love experiencing new cities, moving every three to four months (so far we have lived in Las Vegas, San Diego, LA, Palm Desert, Monterey, and Portland, OR).

We love adventure and we have the best time exploring new places together. We enjoy going on hikes, eating at great restaurants, and spending time with our family and friends as much as we can while we are home visiting.

It has been the best experience to be on our own in each new location. It has made us stronger as a couple and showed us just how well we complement each other’s weaknesses and benefit from the other’s strengths.

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Bringing the countryside to the city – a rustic Jewish wedding with a Phillipa Lepley bride at St Pancras Hotel, London, UK

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If it’s impractical to have a countryside wedding, there’s one clear solution: bring the countryside to the city – and that’s exactly what rustic-loving couple, Miranda and Gabriel, decided to do. 

Their beautiful wedding incorporated elements of farmhouse chic, including doodled dress codes (what a fantastic idea) a multitude of painstakingly collected jam jars, and loose, tumbling floral arrangements – oh, and a Chuppah (designed by the amazing Blue Sky Flowers)  to stop you in your tracks. Have you ever seen such a thing of beauty? We are in LOVE! 

All of this was lovingly captured by our beloved Recommended Vendor, Ria Mishaal, whose work has graced the pages of STG many times before. 

In fact, it was one of her past real weddings, Claudia & Ed, who inspired much of the cast of Miranda and Gabriel’s big day. Miranda actually attended that wedding as a guest, and when she later saw the feature on STG, she knew that she couldn’t go wrong by contacting a few of their vendors!

Miranda and Gabriel ended up using Claudia and Ed’s photographer, planner AND florist, and were delighted with their choices.

There’s so much more to talk about, including the bride’s beautiful Philippa Lepley gown, the couple’s egalitarian ceremony and speeches and the simplification of bridesmaid politics, so we’ll hand over to Miranda to tell you all about it! 

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How we met

Miranda, the bride: I’m a teacher and Gabriel is a doctor. We met through a fix up – his brother and my sister were friends from university, and my sister passed on my number to Gabriel at a dinner party.

Then, after an awkward phone call, and some unsuccessful attempts at Facebook stalking on my part, we went on a completely blind date (all I had to go on was my sister’s description – “he is extremely tall with large hair”) to the extremely romantic (!) Cottons Rum Shack in Chalk Farm. We met at eight and stayed out until 2am, talking and laughing – it just went from there!

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A Sassi Holford bride for a Jewish destination wedding at The National Hotel, South Beach, Miami, USA

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Whether or not you believe in fate, I think we can all agree that Rubie & Ben make a good case for its existence. In fact, fate wouldn’t leave these two alone. It threw them together in chance meeting after chance meeting, insisting that these two lovebirds were meant to be.

Their beach-themed, Miami destination wedding was an absolute dream. Who could ask for more than to get married, barefoot, sand between toes, in idyllic surroundings? And it was very much a family affair, with everyone offering their help. From wedding-planning siblings and parents, to hair-styling sisters, Rubie and Ben’s loved ones certainly did not let them down. 

Sit back, and soak in the sun, sea and sand, as well as the stunning details, such as the beachy driftwood Chuppah overlooking the sea and the stunning seaside-inspired buttercream cake, all captured with dedication by photographer, Paul Toeman.

Breathtaking bride, Rubie, looked a vision in her timeless gown by STG Recommended Vendor, Sassi Holford. And speaking of the STG family, the couple flew in two more of our amazing Recommended Vendors. Wedding band, Totem, and the tear-jerking wedding trailer you absolutely must watch (below) is by Denee Motion. 

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How we met

Rubie, the bride: We met aged 17 at the final of a school business competition, nine years ago. We came from two very different worlds, and kept bumping into each other: first at the school competition where we didn’t even get each other’s names, then at an open day lecture at Leeds University, again not exchanging names and then, finally, I ran into ben in a crowd of 250,000 people at Reading music festival later that summer. After the third fateful meeting, we decided we should exchange names and have our first date: a cup of tomato soup from the Salvation Army tent… and the rest is history! 

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Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Hayley + Ashley… how they met to the present day

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Today on the blog it’s the first post from our crop of gorgeous 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Hayley who will be marrying Ashley on 17th September 2017 at El Cortijo De Los Caballos in Spain.

THREE FACTS: (1) Hayley & Ashley met on Tinder (2) Ashley proposed with a Haribo ring (after which he pulled out the actual engagement gem!) (3) Hayley is converting to Judaism to marry Ashley.

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How We Met

Our love story is my favourite, I saw Ashley’s profile on my screen, his pictures yelled out “if you want a laugh, I’m your man, he was just what I was looking for. I swiped right on a dating website (I’m sure everyone knows which one this is…). My phone pinged back, we both matched!

I waited for all of about an hour being the impatient person I am and in the 21st century I decided to send the first message…. “My mum says you’ll be perfect son-in-law material” with obviously lots of laughing faces.

Suddenly I received a message straight back, this was the beginning of ‘US’

Our First Date

After messaging and numerous phone calls, we decided to meet in a bar in Chelmsford. As I was driving into a car park very nervous and a little early for our date I noticed a car driving into the ‘Exit’ of a car park…..yes I said Exit!

I drove past thinking really that’s super stupid, I hope that isn’t my date…Guess what it turned out it was! Thankfully we already had something to talk about, or more to the point something to laugh about.

We spent all night chatting away Ashley staring at me mostly, I’m not sure if that was because he was already in love or the fact that I had something stuck in my teeth (that I haven’t ever forgiven him for not telling me). 

The next day Ashley jetted off to Thailand for 2 weeks to see some of his friends, he FaceTimed me every night! Smitten he was indeed, but I was also falling for this very humorous guy. 

We dated for around a year and a half to some of the most beautiful restaurants in London, we went on the most amazing holidays to L.A., Vegas (including pool parties at the Encore), Venice and finally Spain, where I met Ashley’s parents for the first time before I asked him to move in.

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